Self-recognition in autistic children

The hypothesis that the autistic child's impairment in social relatedness stems in part from underlying deficits in self-recognition was explored. Fifteen autistic children ranging from 4 to 6 years of age were assessed for visual self-recognition ability, as well as for skills in two cognitive areas that are believed to be related to the development of self-recognition — object permanence and gestural imitation. It was found that 13 of 15 autistic children showed evidence of self-recognition. The two autistic children who lacked self-recognition were the only two children to perform poorly on the object permanence tasks, which suggests that these two cognitive domains may be closely linked in development. In contrast, there appeared to be no consistent relationship between motor imitation ability and self-recognition. It was concluded that the autistic child's social deficits are not due to a basic lack of differentiation between self and other. This research was funded by the University of North Carolina Research Council. Part of the data presented here were from Fawn McKissick's undergraduate honors thesis from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We express our sincere appreciation to the autistic children who participated in the study, and to their parents, and to the staff of the TEACCH Division, Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, for their assistance and cooperation. We would also like to thank several persons for their help in data collecting and coding: Karen Cotten, Pete Giordano, Vickie Hall, Lee Hendrix, Shari Jernigan, Kevin Lumley, Cindy Seagroves, Sheryl Solomon, Kathy Stetson, and Jeannie Teasley. Mary Lynn Eckert provided editorial and secretarial support. Dr. Robert Cairns made helpful comments on this paper.     

Handedness in autistic children

A test of handedness in a sample of 20 autistic children and 25 normal children revealed marked differences. The frequency of non-right-handedness in normal children was 12%, whereas it was 65% in autistic children. The significance of this difference for the etiology of autism is discussed.     

Compliance and resistance in autistic children

The study was designed to explore factors related to negativism in autistic children, where negativism was defined as the consistent avoidance of a correct response in a multiple choice discrimination task. A design employed in an earlier study of autistic children (Cowan, Hodinott, & Wright, 1965) was modified to allow a more detailed examination of patterning of the child's responses. A positive relationship was found between use of spoken language and successful performance of the task. However, no child was negativistic. Of the 27 children tested, 18 had a near perfect performance and 9 scored at chance level. A subsequent exact replication of the Cowan et al. method still failed to produce any negativism. A further study using a more difficult discrimination task produced a higher rate of errors but still no negativism. Possible reasons for the failure to replicate are discussed.This paper was presented at the International Symposium on Autism, St. Gallen, Switzerland, July 1976.     

Echolalia and comprehension in autistic children

The research reported in this paper investigates the phenomenon of echolalia in the speech of autistic children by examining the relationship between the frequency of echolalia and receptive language ability. The receptive language skills of 10 autistic children were assessed, and spontaneous speech samples were recorded. Analysis of these data showed that those children with poor receptive language skills produced significantly more echolalic utterances than those children whose receptive skills were more age-appropriate. Children who produced fewer echolalic utterances, and had more advanced receptive language ability, evidenced a higher proportion of mitigated echolalia. The most common type of mitigation was echo plus affirmation or denial.     

Attachment behaviors in autistic children

The social behaviors of 14 autistic children and 14 normal children of equivalent mental age were observed during a free-play situation as well as during separation from and reunion with their mothers and a stranger. As a group, the autistic children showed evidence of attachment to their mothers, directing more social behaviors and more physical contact to their caregivers than to the stranger during the reunion episodes. Within the autistic group, the children who showed an increase in attachment behaviors in response to separation and reunion demonstrated more advanced symbolic play skills than those autistic children who showed no change in attachment behaviors. One possible explanation may be that autistic children require more advanced levels of symbolic ability to form attachments to others than is necessary for the development of attachments in normal children.     

Thyroid hormone in autistic children

Thyroid hormone plays an important role in the pre- and postnatal development and function of the central nervous system. Disturbances in thyroid hormone regulation have been hypothesized in childhood autism. We evaluated blood indices of thyroid function, including serum thyroxine, triiodothyronine, and thyroid-stimulating hormone, in a large population of autistic children. No differences were found between autistic and normal children. This research was supported in part by MH-CRC grant MH30929, CCRC grant RR 00125, NICHD grant HD-03008, the William T. Grant Foundation, Mr. Leonard Berger, and The Solomon R. & Rebecca D. Baker Foundation, Inc. We thank Ms. Mary Ellen Kavanagh for her technical assistance.     

Social attachments in autistic children

Social responses of young autistic children to separation from and reunion with their caregivers did not differ from the social responses to similar situations of young mentally retarded nonautistic children. Most autistic children directed more social behaviors to their caregivers than to strangers and increased their preferential behavior after separation. Individual differences in social responses were not associated with the level of representational skills shown by the autistic children.     

Imipramine in preschool autistic and schizophrenic children

Imipramine was studied in 10 autistic and schizophrenic children 2 to 6 years of age, whose intellectual functioning ranged from low average and mild to severe mental retardation. The purpose of this pilot study was to explore the effects of imipramine in this patient population. Imipramine showed a mixture of stimulating, tranquilizing, and disorganizing effects. Three children improved markedly, 3 slightly, and 5 became worse (nonblind evaluations). Only 2 were rated improved by the blind psychiatrist. In general, this was not a good drug for this group of children. The overall effect was infrequently therapeutic and usually outweighed by the toxic effects. Epileptogenic effect, effect on psychosis, as well as possible mechanisms of action of imipramine are discussed. It is suggested that this drug merits further exploration in the most retarded, mute, anergic children, and in those with only borderline or little psychotic symptomatology.This study was supported in part by Public Health Service Grant MH-04665 from the National Institute of Mental Health and in part by a grant from the Harriett Ames Charitable Trust.     

Dermatoglyphic study in autistic children and controls

Dermatoglyphic patterns formed during fetal development reflect genetic or early developmental events. These patterns might provide a means for investigation of a biological basis for autism, but the results of prior studies are not conclusive. The authors undertook a study of 95 autistic children, defined by DSM-III criteria ascertained independently by three child psychiatrists. The dermatoglyphic patterns of these children were compared with several control groups, all age-matched, separated by sex, and comprising different ethnic compositions. Analysis of variance as well as chi-square methods of statistical analysis were applied. Consistency among hands, ATD angle values, total ridge counts, incidence and effects on ridge count of arches, double loops, and whorls were evaluated in this comparatively large, well-controlled group of autistic children, and all failed to support a value for dermatoglyphic analysis as a discriminant of autism.